One might not think Austin Prock would have nothing to prove this week in his return to Bristol Dragway, the track on which last year he qualified his Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS No. 1, was quickest in every round of eliminations and posted top speed of the meet en route to the winners’ circle.
However, one would be wrong.
After an early exit last week at Epping, N.H., the result of an almost immediate loss of traction when he hit the throttle on the 341.68 miles per hour Chevy in the opening round, the reigning series champion is coming in with a bit of a chip on his shoulder.
“Coming off a rough Sunday in Epping, we’re looking to rebound,” said the Funny Car point leader. “We don’t blow the tires off at the hit (like we did). I can’t tell you the last time it did that. I got it to recover, but it just wasn’t enough. We had a great car, and we screwed it up.”
The fourth-generation racer, whose great grandfather was a 10th place finisher in the 1931 Indianapolis 500 (as riding mechanic for Chet Miller), is determined to re-establish the superiority of the car in which he qualified No. 1 a record 15 times in 20 races a year ago, his first in a Funny Car after three seasons in a Top Fuel dragster.
“We had a great Cornwell Tools Chevrolet in Bristol last year, sweeping the weekend,” he recalled, “and I hope we can put a nice string of runs together and try and run the table again. I love Bristol. It’s a beautiful facility, and the track is a lot of fun to drive.”
Despite his dissatisfaction with last week’s results, Prock has already had a year for which most of his peers would die.
In addition to back-to-back wins in four-wide events at Las Vegas and Charlotte, N.C., he was runner-up at Phoenix and Chicago, the latter to teammate Jack Beckman in what was the 55th all-John Force Racing Funny Car final.
Nevertheless, Prock has proven himself to be a perfectionist. He and his Cornwell crewmates, including his brother Thomas, his dad Jimmy, and Nate Hildahl, are constantly trying to improve, and he wants to win every time down the racetrack.
“All I ever wanted to do was drive a Funny Car,” said the man who earned Rookie-of-the-Year honors in a JFR Top Fuel dragster. “Now I’m doing it at this level with this team – it’s surreal.”
This story was originally published on June 5, 2025. 
